Beyond the Gates
by Me Llamo Berry
Summary: Part of My Own Way, but couldn't be fitted in. A series of oneshots covering important events in the Spirit World.
1. Time to Change things

**A/n. If you have never read my fic, My Own Way, back away slowly and read it. Or go ahead and surge forward, either works, but the second choice will leave you more confused than the first.**

**This oneshot is a scene I would have had in my fanfiction but there wasn't really room for it, but I decided I needed to cover it, especially since people wanted to see Aquarius get in trouble.**

Leo took a deep breath as he returned to the spirit world with his sister, his ears still ringing with her asking if he was dating Aries yet. Aries was just a friend, as it had always been. That wasn't going to change. He took a moment to compose himself before going to meet the other spirits in the common area of their section of the Spirit World.

Each Celestial mage's spirits had their own sections. Lucy's spirits occupied the biggest area of the spirit world since she had contracted the most spirits. There being different sections made it hard to go to visit other spirits except in the common Spirit World area where uncontracted spirits hung out.

It didn't help that time ran differently in each section generally. The main Spirit World had one day in the spirit world to three months in Earthland. Once a celestial mage contracted their first spirit, that spirit would choose at what rate time would pass in their section. Most spirits chose to have time pass faster so that only one month or less in Earthland equaled a day in the Spirit World. Every so often, the mage's spirits would gather to decide whether they would change the passage of time at which point they would go to the Spirit King and have it changed, as he was the only one who could change it.

Lucy's spirits were content to have the time pass at the same rate as Earthland. But that did leave them rather isolated compared to other spirits since they were always worried about time passing faster than they realized and being called when they weren't prepared and might not even realize it was a day they were contracted for. Or even be called more often than they would like. It was a miracle Aquarius and Scorpio had any sort of relationship before Lucy gained ownership of Scorpio's gate key.

None of the spirits really minded in the end, even if they were cut off from family and friends. Spirits tended to feel better when contracted, alive like they used to be. Being a spirit tended to be a curse rather than a blessing unless said spirit found a great owner like Lucy. When the Celestial Spirit King came into existence as the first spirit and created gate keys, that's what he had in mind as owners, but sadly, since humans are prone to being cruel and power hungry, it didn't always work out that way.

Leo paused at the door to the common area, it sounded like all the spirits were already gathered in anticipation to meet the new spirits. New houses had appeared in their little section, that's always how they knew. He sighed.

"Lea... Kiara... There's something you need to know. Aquarius is going to be trying to turn you and Lupus and Draco against Lucy as an owner... but while she puts a terrible spin on it... Lucy cuts... And what Lucy needs is support but Aquarius can't see that." He sighed.

"Well then why don't you do something about it, O leader of the Zodiacs?" Kiara asked, bounding along side, once again in her lioness form. Loke shook his head.

"Aquarius is too stubborn for her to listen to me, and she can be quite scary." He shuddered. Kiara stopped and resumed human form, grinning mischievously.

"I bet that she will listen to you and at least shut up if you confront her. And I bet you can convince all the other spirits to support Lucy and not condemn her," she rattled off, smirking. Loke sighed.

"What are the terms?" he asked resignedly.

"If you don't even try you have to stay in lion form for one Earthland month, and if I'm right, you have to show all the spirits _and_ Lucy your lion form!"

"...why does something good make me humiliated?"

"Because you don't think it'll actually work of course." Kiara grinned at the expression on his face; he couldn't always follow her logic.

"Right... and if you're wrong, what happens?"

"You can choose what happens!" She waved cheerily and darted into the common area in lioness form. Loke groaned.

"I'm going to regret this..." he mumbled as he followed after her at a jog into the crowd of spirits. He caught her by the scruff of her neck. "Is that any way to introduce yourself?" he scolded lightly. She pouted and once he dropped her, returned to human form.

"You're no fun."

"Is that... your sister?" Aries asked, shaking like she normally did, even among spirits. Loke scowled slightly, remembering the human (long before Karen) that made her like that. If he'd been contracted to that human, Loke would have disappeared hundreds of years ago.

"Aries!" Kiara ran over and hugged her.

"Calm down, Kiara." Loke looked around. "I was there when Lucy contracted the new spirits," he announced. "Leo Minor, otherwise known as my pain in the butt sister, Kiara, was one of them. We also will be welcoming one of the Lupus spirits, and Draco here to our home."

It didn't take long for the two other spirits to wander from their new houses to the common area, where they were greeted by all the other spirits. Loke stayed tense as he observed all the spirits. Kiara disappeared and made a nuisance of herself, as usual, though all of the Zodiacs had met her at some point during their long existence as spirits.. Then, Aquarius finally made her move.

"I wouldn't be so enamored of our owner if I were you," she announced to Draco. "Lucy harms herself all the time." There were groans of disbelief from her statement and stares. Loke took a deep breath, and readied himself for the confrontation as he stepped forward and started speaking.

"Actually, I found out today that Aquarius is correct. Lucy has harmed herself in the past." Aquarius looked triumphant. Loke rolled his eyes and continued. "However what Aquarius left out is that Lucy has not cut since shortly after Phantom Lord kidnapped her, and before that, since she ran away from home." He glared at Aquarius as many of the spirits looked horrified.

"And how would you know?" Aquarius asked frostily as Scorpio inched away, trying to remain unnoticed. He didn't really approve of Aquarius' attitude, but before meeting Lucy he agreed with her but now... he wasn't sure. And normally he'd support Aquarius, but judging by the look on Leo the Lion's face... it was better to be on neutral ground than supporting her. Loke noticed, and nodded to the Scorpion. Interesting that even her boyfriend was not willing to support her in this.

"I actually talked to her about it instead of condemned her for it." His gaze swept the spirits, and some looked ashamed that they didn't think to do that, especially Cancer. "She knows and has always known that self harm isn't the answer. What she needs is reasons not to do so when she feels guilty or alone. Before she joined Fairy Tail, she didn't have many reasons, but those few she did have left her behind mostly when she started cutting." Cancer winced and looked down, crossing his arms.

"I should have known shrimp. Yet I just left her... I failed her and her mother shrimp." The crab looked down, sighing as he sat down miserably. Loke nodded.

"Yes, and from what I gathered by reading what she didn't say... I believe it made it even worse." Loke knew he was being harsh, but it was better to make sure it got through to each of the spirits. He didn't feel that badly about Cancer's ashamed and sad posture though.

"Oh what's with the sympathy for that brat? She'll never amount to much, and by self harming she tarnished the memory of her mother. She's not half the mage her mother was!" Aquarius burst out, half-way to her feared furious mode. She made herself bigger and glared down her leader.

Loke growled. Actually growled. Most of the Zodiac froze in place. Loke growling was not good. It meant his temper was being set off. And it was time to run. But the scene was too fascinating to run from, so they stayed where they were for the most part. Well, Scorpio hurried to the other Zodiac's, not willing to get caught in their leader's wrath. It wasn't often that one of the Zodiacs themselves were the cause of his temper. And the results were sure to be explosive.

"Shut up Aquarius. Your time as the leader of Lucy's spirits has made you arrogant and controlling." He stalked towards her, much like a lion after his prey. "You've forgotten that I AM the leader of the Zodiacs, and that means I outrank you and therefore, am now leader. It took me a while to recover from my experiences, but for the last month or so I've just been humoring you. This has got to stop. You are not in charge. I am. And so is Lucy. It's about time you actually started LISTENING to her." The worst part of Leo's anger was always the same deadly quiet tone he used except for the inflections on certain words, which made everyone flinch, whether or not they were the ones in trouble. Loke drew himself up to his full height.

"Lucy is not Layla, Aquarius. She will never be. But she is powerful and a great mage in her own right. She saved me from fading away from sheer determination... and faced down the Celestial Spirit King without facing to allow me back to this world." He stared her down, glasses off, and fully in his role as leader for the first time since his return. "Lucy is her own self, just as you are your own self. You cannot blame Lucy for her mother's death. You cannot condemn her for being lonely and having no way to improve her circumstances when it sounds like you've always disdained her ownership. It takes two for those to work the way they should." He growled again.

The other spirits found that they were correct, this was a scene to watch and not run from, as long as they did not draw attention from Loke onto themselves. The spirits that did not know Loke as well, Draco and Lupus, watched with rapt attention, finding respect for the Lion spirit.

"She's irresponsible and doesn't care about being a mage! She just wants friends," Aquarius sneered. "I don't see how that team could stand her whining ways for so long. And what's wrong with me being leader, I did just fine." Loke's eyes narrowed at her and he swiped a hand-turned paw at her, knocking her down. Her eyes were wide as she stared up at him, but she was still furious.

"Lucy is the most kind hearted owner I have ever had. She is also the strongest I've ever had, she can summon two spirits at once and have you realized that you could have helped her but chose not to? She came to ME for help a few days ago... and she's going to learn the other techniques a celestial mage can learn. Who was the last mage to do that? Someone at least a century ago, not even _Layla_ thought to ask if there was anything else she could do. And guess what? Lucy is going even further." He stepped back and turned to the other spirits. "She received a book as a reward on a recent mission. She is now working towards becoming a dragon slayer." He turned back to Aquarius and glowered at her. He ignored the excited whispers and cheers that broke out, focused on taking Aquarius down a notch, to the spirit that Scorpio had fallen in love with years before.

"Do you know how much hard work it is? I only skimmed and I can barely imagine doing what she has to do to succeed. She has such low esteem usually it's hard for her to even think of what she can do better because she tends to believe she can't! And YOU only made it worse." He crossed his arms. "As for you being good at leader. Yes, you are good at it when there is only a few spirits, but there are far too many for you to lead now. You've grown too big an ego. You control too much of what they can do, while allowing yourself all the time in the world to be with Scorpio. That ends now. If Lucy calls, you drop everything unless it's a day you told her in your contract you would not be available. It is not her fault that you're always on a date when she needs you. It is not her fault when she loses her keys. It is not her fault that you are too much of a bitch to care about an owner, who despite all your verbal abuse, still cares for you as much as any of us other spirits!" He glared at her again.

"Well you didn't go to her when she needed you in that weird other world because you had a date!" Aquarius retaliated. The other spirit merely raised an eyebrow.

"Every time she calls you cut things short or overreact because you were on a date. That was the only time I failed to respond or even did something remotely similar to you. Besides, it was not a date. I was in a meeting with the Celestial Spirit King."

"Big brother sent me in his place and I could not think of a suitable excuse other than a date. I am sorry, big brother, what is my punishment?" Virgo bowed her head. Loke shook his head.

"There is none. Technically any appointment is a date, its not your fault everyone assumed it was a romantic one."

"You can call him brother? That makes us sisters!" Kiara squealed and hugged Virgo. Loke closed his eyes.

_Why me? This is not going to end well but I cannot dwell on it... back to the matter at hand._ He returned his attention to Aquarius, staring at her sternly.

"Everything I've said so far comes from me. But the Spirit King told me and I quote, 'Leo old friend, it is time for you to resume your leadership of the Zodiacs. Be kind and compassionate but firm with your fellow spirits in Lucy's care.'" Here he paused and let that sink in. Everyone started murmuring to each other. Loke carefully kept his face neutral as he prepared to say the next bit without laughing. "Then he told me 'Leo, old friend, as your friend not the King, I say take that bitch down a few notches.'"

Aquarius gasped in outrage. There was silence from the other spirits before a cacophony of voices broke out, many stating things she'd done in recent times, though many just laughed at what the King had said. Loke noted that from what he could hear, she'd started out as a good leader but gotten worse over time and as Lucy contracted more spirits.

"A-after L-Lucy c-contracted m-me, A-Aquarius t-told m-me th-that I-I n-need t-to b-be l-less t-timid a-and w-wanted m-me t-to p-practice f-fighting w-with h-her." Aries shook. Loke whipped his head around to stare at her before returning his gaze to Aquarius.

"Is that what I walked in on the other day?" he growled softly. "If that's what you call helping, it wasn't. All it did was make her cry. That makes a situation WORSE not better." Aquarius glared at him venomously.

"Oh you've always had a soft spot for her, yet she's probably the weakest of the Zodiacs. She should be tougher, but she's a quivering mess," she exclaimed. "You always take the side of the weak, Leo. Nearly got you wiped out of existence. That would have been good riddance, you cowardly ninny! You ran away from your problems for years!"

Leo narrowed his eyes and before anyone could blink, he had her pinned while in his lion form, snarling loud enough that every spirit could hear him. Aquarius felt the first prickle of fear at the sight of his teeth. In lion form, both Loke and Kiara could speak, but both felt oddly about it under normal circumstances. Loke thought it would only help him in this case as he kept pinning the other spirit down.

"Listen well Aquarius. I am tired of your bullshit. There will be no more of that. I can be a tough leader if you push me hard enough." He narrowed his eyes and showed her his teeth again. "Which you just did. I take the side of the weak to help them get stronger. Because they cannot help themselves but can be great someday. I did not run away from my problems. I had no choice but to be exiled and it was only because of LUCY that I was able to return at all." He chose to omit the part where he did try to make himself feel better about it all as he put his face closer to Aquarius'. "And as for how I got to that point... Karen was an abusive owner. You would not have stood for it, so why should I have been any different? I'm the leader of the Zodiacs. Not just because I'm most powerful but because I'm also a good leader. And even without Capricorn around, I would never choose you as a second, especially after hearing how you handled leadership without me around and even while I was recovering."

"Leo, I believe you may be going too far," Draco spoke up from the back of the crowd of spirits. Loke glanced up and then down at Aquarius, who no longer looked furious, but actually a bit scared. He sighed.

"You're right. I may have been too harsh... but Aquarius needed to hear those things... and harshness tends to be the only way to get through to her these days." Draco nodded, bowing his head a little in respect at Leo's reasoning.

The lion stood up, walked away, and returned to human form casually, without breaking a step. He turned to face the other spirits, ignoring Aquarius as she got back up. He took a deep breath before going into a speech he'd hoped to have a few more days at the least to prepare.

"I agree with the Spirit King. It is past time for me to return to my position. I know I've been selfish with my recovery, but after three years of being out of touch with the Spirit World, I believe two months of recovery and adjustment was necessary. But now that I am back, I will strive to be worthy of the position. That means I will be tough when necessary, but I don't want any of you to stop thinking of me as a friend. Lucy is going farther than any celestial mage has done in a long time. I think we should return the favor and work on training and holding back some of our... quirks around her. Even though we're at peak strength, our techniques could always use practice. We will also work on working together now that she has mastered summoning more than one spirit. Taurus, don't be a pervert when she calls, it's distracts you from the fight, and is a weakness that Gemini exploited. It also annoys her immensely. Aries, I'll work with you and I hope some of the others will help, and we'll help you become less timid, at least in battle. Virgo, don't ask for punishment. If you need one, Lucy or I will tell you, it can also distract Lucy from the fighting to answer that question. I'll be working on not flirting during a battle or right when she calls me. Those are just the ones I can name right now, but I'm sure everyone has quirks when it comes to battles that could be curbed so as to help Lucy more." He noted the nods of agreements before continuing.

"For now, the position of my second will be shared by Virgo and Sagittarius, with Crux providing input. Draco, if you're amendable, once you're used to everything, I believe you would be the best second for me to have. We've worked together in the past. Among the Zodiacs, without Capricorn present, I will keep Virgo and Sagittarius as my seconds." The dragon spirit nodded. "Those of you who are not combat oriented at all, just be there for Lucy. She appreciates it, and it will help her feel better about herself. I will be constructing a list of rules and consequences. The best way for us to become better spirits for Lucy is to become better people and work on our bad habits. Does everyone agree?" There were silent nods in response. After how he reacted to Aquarius, everyone respected him more than before.

"Good." He turned back to Aquarius. "Since there isn't a list of consequences right now, I believe what you shall do is go back to your house for the majority of your time when you're not training or eating with us and think about what you've said and done, especially over the last three to four months. Oh. And no Scorpio for a week." She screeched in outrage. "You're very attached to him. I think it's best if you take the time without him to seriously think and I doubt you'll be thinking selfless thoughts around him." He hesitated. "Cancer, you didn't help Lucy when she was conflicted with emotions. I think you should give up your scissors for a few days." Cancer agreed without a fuss, feeling like he deserved worse.

Loke took a deep breath and nodded to everyone before turning and strolling to his house. Behind him, the crowd dispersed, with Sagittarius and Virgo making sure that Aquarius went back to her house, and debating on whether to have someone guard her to make sure Scorpio didn't visit.

Unknown to any of them, Scorpio wasn't planning on visiting at all. He wasn't sure he really liked this side of Aquarius. He'd turned a blind eye before, and he hadn't even been aware of it all. But now... he didn't like how she viewed things, especially with how awesome a owner Lucy was. He would use the time away from her to think about how he handled things as well. He didn't like the idea that he'd been so blinded by love he failed to see how much she changed from the sweet but stubborn and fierce spirit he once knew.

Once in his house, Loke collapsed on his bed with a groan. That undoubtedly was the hardest thing he'd ever had to do. Harder than protecting Aries and staying out for a month, harder than choosing to turn to bullying, harder than being blackmailed, harder than when he died, harder than controlling his sister and dealing with the embarrassment. He had never stood up to Aquarius before, well he didn't need to before... but he hadn't been sure he could do it. The way he saw the Zodiacs was that he was the strongest, followed by Capricorn, and then Aquarius. She could be scary and yet nearly as good at fighting as them when she felt like doing more than use a wave to sweep everyone, enemies and allies, away. But she rarely did, so her usefulness dropped to just above the non-combatant spirits. That didn't make her any less scary.

Facing down her temper was scary, and he nearly stopped before he even started. But he was thankful she chose to be so stubborn. What she said set him off and gave him what he needed to see through the confrontation to the end. Who knew if it would work... but hopefully it would be the start of some sort of change. He wasn't expecting a miracle, this was Aquarius after all, one of the most stubborn of the spirits, and considering how stubborn they could be, that's saying a lot. But hopefully it'd be a step in the right direction and it would help Lucy in the long run.

**A/n. Yes, I didn't really punish Cancer. That's mostly because in the long run what Aquarius did is far worse than what he did. So yes I may overlook it a bit and forget... but Lucy is also that sort of person, she will easily forgive and forget Cancer's actions once he proves that he does support her and regrets his actions, even if Loke and her friends don't and potentially bother him about it. Ha, amusing that 'her friends' takes a different definition for canon versus my fanfiction universe.**


	2. Couple Confrontation

Aquarius floated out of her house irritably. She hadn't had a happy moment in the last two weeks. First she was told off by Leo (she refused to call him that ridiculous name), then she was restricted to her house for a week and no Scorpio. And then she snuck out to see him, and that stupid lion spirit gave her another week of punishment. It just wasn't fair. She had done nothing wrong. He had no right to punish her.

She still sulked about it even now. She was tired of being alone, so she headed for her boyfriend's. Her darling Scorpio. She scowled. He had chosen not to defend her and didn't even want her in his house during her punishment. He practically betrayed her. And now that she remembered, she had to find out why.

Besides, it'd been two weeks! She needed her boyfriend. She didn't bother knocking on the door; there was no need for that in their relationship. She went straight in and looked for her wayward boyfriend. A talk was way over due and she needed to complain about the unfairness of the situation. He would see it her way. After all, he always did.

From the bedroom, Scorpio groaned when he saw his girlfriend approaching. He was not looking forward to the confrontation. Between training with Lucy or in the spirit world, he did a lot of thinking. He didn't like who Aquarius had become, and he didn't like who he'd become because of that either. When did he become the person who always said yes to her instead of actually discussing things? When did he become scared of talking to her? He acted like a spirit with a two track mind. Aquarius and fighting when Lucy needed him to. That had to stop. He took a deep breath and walked out of his room to meet Aquarius and get it over with.

"Hello, Aquarius," he greeted her, sighing at how she jumped. She'd really grown complacent, there was a time where he could never sneak up on her like that.

"Scorpio!" she squealed and hugged him, but then remembered her purpose here and pulled away, glowering at him. "Why didn't you defend me? Leo was being so mean and I didn't deserve that punishment..." She pouted. He sighed again before taking a deep breath and taking the plunge.

"You did deserve that punishment," Scorpio stated as he braced himself. She gaped at him for a brief moment before her face turned red and she seemed to grow. She glared at him and started screaming.

"You're supposed to be on my side! You're my boyfriend! How dare you say I deserved that punishment! It was completely unfair!" She seemed about ready to attack him. He just sighed and stared at her. He had thankfully taken the precaution of making magic unusable in his house after talking to the more knowledgeable spirits.

"I'm only on your side if you're in the right. And you are not in any way," Scorpio corrected her, trying to remain calm. This could very well spell the end of the relationship, but he was tired of who she became.

"What? So you're a Lucy lover too now?" she responded in disgust. Scorpio glared at her.

"There's nothing wrong with that. She's a great owner, she helped me come up with new attacks and defensive techniques, and it's been at least a decade since I last did that before. Training with her and her friends is brilliant."

"She hasn't called me to train yet," Aquarius retorted haughtily, tossing her hair. "She's not all that great if she can't train the best of her spirits." Scorpio snorted.

"All you do these days is throw water at everyone, a rather powerful attack admittedly, but it doesn't always work, and puts Lucy out of commission for fighting as well. Have you considered that she doesn't want to deal with your mule-headed stubbornness?" Scorpio pointed out. She stared at him.

"I do not just throw water at everyone! I destroy the opponent!" She screamed. Scorpio just shook his head.

"And you wonder why Lucy won't train with you when she's trained with every combat spirit here in the last two weeks."

"That's not fair! I'm the strongest!" Aquarius yelled. If she had feet, she would've been stomping them in frustration. Scorpio crossed his arms. It was time to get serious, he needed to get through to her.

"You were once. When Leo was exiled, and you were the leader, but things have changed just as you have. You only use one attack, and it can harm your allies just as much as your enemy, it's not a reliable attack. You've grown complacent, once upon a time, there was no way I'd be able to sneak up on you, yet when you arrived, I did. That's not a strong spirit or person. You're no longer the strongest around. And you've changed. You let it all go to your head. You're not the spirit I fell in love with," he finished firmly. She stared at him.

"I haven't changed," she shrieked. "You have! And I am too the strongest, I'll show you!" She launched herself at him, not realizing she couldn't use magic within his house. Even so, she was confident in her non magic abilities. Scorpio sighed. He easily blocked her. He used his tail to knock her down, and then he pinned her.

"Yes. You have. You're throwing a temper tantrum and acting like a child," he told her in exasperation. She stared at him.

"I am not!" she screeched, struggling against his hold. "You're not being fair and you're not listening to me! You're supposed to be my boyfriend." He closed his eyes and breathed deeply before opening them and responding.

"Then maybe it is time we went our separate ways." She gaped at him wordlessly as he continued speaking. He glared at her sternly. "But first you will listen to me. You are no longer the strongest spirit, that belongs to Loke. Right now, I think you might actually be the weakest of the zodiacs. You are no longer leader, that also belongs to Loke. You were a good leader, but sometime between Lucy acquiring Sagittarius and Loke, you changed. You became a dictator, no spirit was allowed out of our section except for you at first to visit me. You enforced a strict training schedule which didn't allow any spirit to improve. You made everyone have a curfew. And when Loke finally had enough, you didn't want to give up your power." She looked away.

"I thought I was helping everyone," she muttered.

"By being a dictator when they didn't ask for it? You weren't. And that's not it. You belittled Lucy every chance you got. I've learned that everything you hate about her is wrong. Even the cutting. More scorn and hate and abandonment does not solve a problem born of abandonment and loneliness. It just makes it worse. If Layla was going to hate anyone for that situation, it was Jude or yourself. Even Cancer, but not Lucy. Lucy hates herself for cutting. But that was how she coped. She's a great owner, a great mage, and she could've been even greater than she already is by now if you and Cancer had just offered to train her instead of leaving her to figure things out, thrown headfirst into things from the moment she joined Fairy Tail. She is definitely quickly making her way to the top by way of celestial magic. She's a dragon slayer now. She can use any of our magics without calling us. She has our keys linked to her eye so that she can still call us if her keys get stolen or tossed aside like they have in the past, _through no fault of her own._ You never gave Lucy a chance. You just hated the change from Layla to Lucy, and hated Lucy for living where her mother did not, right?" Scorpio paused to see if she would respond. She stubbornly kept her head turned away so he couldn't see her expression.

"Well, that resentment stops. You can't change the past. You're not the spirit I fell in love with and started dating. We used to have fun. We used to play games with our magics. We used to cuddle and talk. Lately all you've done is whine and force me to listen to it. I'm done with that. I'm done with this version of you. If I were leader, I would've punished you worse than one week and then an additional week for breaking the rules. That was rather lenient, and I see the punishment didn't do you any good." Scorpio stood up and moved away. He didn't look at her. "Leave now. We're through."

"Fine. I see how it is." She flew out the door, trying not to show how close she was to actually crying. He had hit a nerve, and she didn't want him to know. It's not like he would care anyways.

Once she was gone, Scorpio collapsed onto a chair with a groan. He rubbed his face, disbelieving that he actually did that. Before Loke's punishment of Aquarius, he would've never dreamed of lecturing her like that, let alone attempting to break up, a testament to how what was once a good relationship, turned bad. He never wanted to break up with her; the real her was still in there somewhere, buried beneath layers of resentment, hate, and power corruption. He just wished they could've done without the break up... but it was clear she needed a shock like that. He only hoped it worked.

* * *

Aquarius huffed as she stalked over to her house, as best a floating mermaid could do. It just wasn't fair, first Leo and the rest of the spirits, then her boyfriend? And Lucy refused to train her? The indignation! She slammed the door behind her, getting immense satisfaction from the thud that echoed.

"Who do they think they are telling me what to do?" She yelled and picked up a vase and threw it at the wall. It shattered.

"Why am I being punished for doing things right around here!" She turned and launched a plate at the wall.

"This isn't fair! Lucy stole my boyfriend!" She hurled another plate after the first.

"I am strong!" A glass. "I was a good leader!" A third plate. "I'm not acting like a child!" She smashed three glasses in succession against the wall and then paused. She looked around at the mess of glass around her. She snorted.

"Looks like a child did this... oh... I am the child..." Aquarius collapsed onto the couch, trying not to remember times she cuddled with Scorpio there. "Scorpio was right..." she whispered before falling silent, considering what Scorpio said, seriously this time.

She really was acting like a child over the situation, even if she was in the right. Throwing temper tantrums? It felt so natural, when did that become her? She sighed heavily. Scorpio was right... it did start with Layla's death. She had reacted the same way Lucy did. With anger, pushing everyone away. Except she still had Scorpio, that had been about when they started dating. He helped her through it, but her anger never really faded unlike Lucy's. She was angry that she was forced to go to Lucy, she didn't have a choice in her next owner. And she took it out on the young girl no often than not... who kept enduring the abuse, trying to make friends with one of her few connections to her mother remaining.

She had harmed her owner, why hadn't Lucy ever released her? Just because she was Layla's spirit? That... that wasn't a good enough reason, not for all the things she did to Lucy. She deserved to be exiled. She had to make it up somehow... But first she needed to consider the other things she'd been told.

With a sigh, she acknowledged that maybe she had gotten a bit too much because of letting the power go to her head, and she thought she was helping them because she knew best, but she'd also always known that every spirit was different in how they trained, and very few spirits would benefit from her idea of training... Which she hadn't actually done herself.

Aquarius considered the attacks she'd used since Lucy joined Fairy Tail, and realized they were all the same attacks. All of which could have wiped Lucy out of the battle, and some of them were life or death. All for what? Resentment? Anger? ...revenge? It wasn't worth it, the mermaid spirit decided. Not worth it one bit. What had she become? No wonder Scorpio broke up with her... she deserved that.

All the thoughts circled through her head, driving her to break down in tears, begging herself for forgiveness, but knowing she wouldn't get it from herself until she got it from everyone else and worked towards making it better.

She took a few hours to calm herself, and to think through how she had to handle this. It was unlikely Scorpio would let her back into his house. So she would have to do a public apology. That was fine, she could do the other apologies while she was at it. She took a deep breath. She just had to overcome her pride. And stubbornness. But this was something she had to do, there was no getting around it this time. She needed to get over it. And fast. The sooner she apologized, the sooner she could start making amends.

So Aquarius marched straight to the gathering area. Well, marched being a relative term seeing as she floated along. A large amount of spirits were gathered there. She ignored the whispering and staring as she searched for Scorpio. She found him, talking to Draco and Sagittarius. She took a deep breath and cleared her throat. All three glanced up. She gathered up her courage.

"Scorpio... I'm sorry. You were right. I was acting like a child." Dead silence greeted her words. Aquarius turned around so she was addressing most of the other spirits. "I'm sorry for how I was acting. I was acting spoiled, selfish, and mean. Leo... Loke, you were right. You should be leader, and I shouldn't have treated Lucy the way I have." Loke nodded to her.

"I accept your apology, as I think many of the spirits do. But don't forget, you will need to apologize to Lucy as well." He held out his hand. Aquarius hesitated, and then shook it.

"I will. I... just need to figure out how."

After that, there was silence. Until it was broken by Kiara turning to Lupus gleefully.

"Ha. Told you Scorpio would be able to get her to see sense quickly. I won the bet!" she cheered. "Now for that piggy back!" Lupus groaned.

"Must I?" he complained, backing away slowly. Loke watched in amusement.

"Kiara always wins the bets. It's best to get it over with quickly or she will find a way to torture you until you do."

Even Aquarius had to laugh at the sight of the big wolf carrying Kiara around the gathering space, heeding her every order with grumbles, whines, and occasionally growls. Scorpio approached her silently. She noticed him and hesitated, not sure what to do since they no longer were a couple.

"Aquarius," Scorpio started, "do you want to talk?" She hesitated, then nodded, feeling like she was 15 again.

"Yeah... that'd be... that'd be good."

They walked away for some privacy. Neither were certain how they should act. Finally, Aquarius couldn't take it any more.

"I don't want to stop dating..." She refused to look at him, afraid of what she would see. "I want to be my old self again, but it's been so long... I don't know how. I... I need help so... I... I understand if you don't want to date me because of what I've done." Scorpio didn't need any time. He wrapped his arms around her.

"I'll help you any time. We are a couple as long as we're both in love with the other's true selves, and that's still true... we just need to work through this. It'll get better," he promised. She looked up at him hopefully.

"Really?"

"Really, as long as you want to make the change, we can do it. It may take a lot of time, but YOU can do it. I believe in you."

"Thanks," she mumbled as she cuddle against him. Things were right again, just not in the way she had thought.

* * *

**A/n This was much harder to write than I thought it would be, I struggled with it for weeks because Aquarius and Scorpio didn't want to be written. Plus, it's not like we know Scorpio's personality well, so I had to make his up as I went. I'm just glad have Aquarius on the way to being a good spirit finally. Sure her parts were funny, but she is/was my least favorite of the spirits I've seen so far. And that makes me upset. Because my sign is Aquarius, barely (my birthday is January 20th), but she is my sign. I don't like seeing an immature brat 'representing' me. **


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